How IELTS is scored, on the General Training route.
Four papers, one mean, two friendly roundings, and one route-specific fact that surprises people: the General Training Reading paper demands more correct answers than the Academic paper for the same band. The figures below are indicative; the arithmetic is not.
Why this page exists. The General Training Reading conversion is the fact candidates most often meet for the first time in their results email. Better to meet it here.
Four papers, one mean, two friendly roundings.
The overall band is arithmetic, not judgement, and it is the same arithmetic on both routes.
One overall band
The mean of four papers
Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking each score 0 to 9, and the overall band is their average. Nothing is weighted, nothing is dropped.
There is no route where a paper can be safely neglected.
The favourable roundings
.25 up to .5 · .75 up to the whole
A mean ending in .25 reports as the half band above; a mean ending in .75 reports as the next whole band. The two edge cases both round upwards.
6.0 + 6.5 + 6.5 + 6.0 gives 6.25, which reports as overall 6.5.
Where the marks come from
Criteria for W and S, raw scores for L and R
Writing and Speaking are marked against four public criteria each; Listening and Reading convert a score out of forty into a band.
The descriptors are on How IELTS is scored, in plain English.
GT Reading demands more correct answers for the same band.
Indicative figures; exact conversions vary slightly between test versions.
Band 6
≈ 30 of 40 correct
Around thirty right answers converts to band 6 on the General Training paper, where the Academic paper asks around twenty-three. The texts are more accessible, so the ladder compensates.
Seven extra correct answers for the same number on the certificate.
Band 7
≈ 34 of 40 correct
Around thirty-four for band 7, against around thirty on the Academic paper. Six wrong answers is roughly the whole budget.
Precision discipline, word limits and spelling, earns its keep here.
Band 8
≈ 38 of 40 correct
Around thirty-eight of forty. At band 8 the General Training paper allows almost no error at all.
Treat every everyday text as a precision exercise, because the conversion does.
Task 1 is a letter, and the register is the mark.
One hundred and fifty words to a named or unnamed reader, with three bullet points to cover.
Task Achievement on the GT Task 1 turns on purpose and register: the tone must match the reader, formal, semi-formal or informal, and all three bullet points must be covered, not merely mentioned. The letter guide teaches the three registers and the letter papers let you write one against the clock. Task 2, the essay, counts double; its prompts run more personal and general than the Academic set, but the four marking criteria are exactly the same.
The other two papers are the same test on both routes.
Listening and Speaking are shared ground, and your route pages cover how to play them.
Listening
The same four recordings and the same conversion for every candidate, lecture included. Your route page covers the everyday front half and the academic back half.
Indicatively, thirty of forty converts to band 7 for everyone.
Speaking
One interview, one marksheet, one scale. Your route page covers the everyday-English advantage and the Part 3 ambush.
No easier interview exists for General Training.
The descriptors
What separates a 6 from a 7 in Writing and Speaking, criterion by criterion, in plain English.
Ten minutes here repays itself on results day.
A second pair of eyes
When the band decides a visa, a marked letter or a scored mock interview finds the half band that self-assessment misses.
The arithmetic is public. The diagnosis is the service.